Can Your Business Go Viral?

Madonna’s Super Bowl performance got 10,245 tweets a second…is it possible for a B2B company to get that? And if so, how?

We attended the Conference in Las Vegas last week and returned saying “Yes (!), social media can work just as hard for B2B marketers, but just in a different way. Remember, Madonna is an A-list celebrity with a well-recognized ‘forskolin reviews brand,’ and has millions of followers than a typical midsize B2B organization could only dream about. So expecting the same level of social media interactions is more or less Like a Prayer (sorry, it was right there!).

But that’s not to say the same level of success can’t be achieved if you focus on quality, and not necessarily quantity. With the right approach, right monitors and right voice, a B2B business can’t go wrong joining a conversation or creating a social media marketing strategy that addresses current issues that your business is impacting in a positive way. Or, by simply showing your company cares, you’ll ‘speak volumes’ in increasing your circle of social media friends, followers or communities.

In other words, if you make it relative, make it a measurable process and stay with it for the long-haul, then there’s no reason a strategy can’t be developed for B2B marketers to profit from – borrowing from Jim Morrison – “Breaking on through to the other side” with highly successful results.

While many B2B marketers are still ‘investigating’ social media marketing, others think it will solve all of their marketing problems if they can only replace their traditional marketing with social media. Wrong! Social media is just one more tool I your marketing arsenal and it should be part of your integrated strategy and not the entire marketing strategy.

So how do you weave it in? Easy. First, start with what you’re already doing via traditional marketing and figure out how social media can augment that approach. And be sure to do this in a process-driven, data-supported manner. Before you can add social media to the mix, you must first understand what you’re trying to accomplish from a marketing perspective and how that fits into the bigger business picture.

Once you have an understanding of what works for how to get cat pee out of carpet, as well as in your traditional marketing, you can begin to evaluate social media’s effectiveness at meeting those pre-defined business objectives. This is where a lot of companies go wrong. There’s no such thing as ‘dipping your toe in the water’ with social media. Since social media require a long-term commitment, pre-determined milestones are required, not to mention a long-term commitment.

Also remember that it takes time to build. Steady and consistently are the two keys. Try a variety of things, test the waters to see what works and what doesn’t for your specific brand. Next thing you know, you’ll be getting Madonna-like results – maybe not in quantity but definitely in quality.

Tell us about your B2B experience in social media circles. Has it made any impact? Have you been able to ‘break on through?’ Let us know.